Swampscott Patch profiles restaurateur Matt O’Neil ’00

Leading up to the traditional Thanksgiving Day football game between Swampscott and Marblehead high schools, the local Patch profiles a former Swampscott player and Bates alumnus, Matt O’Neil ’00, now chef and owner of the Blue Ox Restaurant in Lynn, Mass.

Matt O'Neill '00 is the chef and owner of the Blue Ox in Lynn, Mass. Photo by Terry Date.

Swampscott Patch writer Terry Date interviews O’Neil as he “takes a chair at a table under a painting of a blue ox and looks ready to relax — at least for a couple minutes in the restaurant where the family man works 80 hours a week.”

It’s the same room where he hosts his ESPN show, Cooking Coach, featuring “quick, straightforward segments” with high energy, which is “like what I do here,” O’Neil says. “I’m able to project my personality and be in front of people. That is when I am at my best.”